Question/weird thing

[Vert340]

So about an hour ago my chameleon did something I never seen it do. It started waving, its arm' well tbh it was more like rotating its left arm like a windmill. Not slow either, he was doing it moderatly fast. I tried searching online for anything about it and nothing popped up. I'll just explain how the whole thing happened so you guys can see if anything pops up.

I turned on his lights and decided to feed him a bit earlier today so I got the cricket keeper out and took out a cricket in front of him. For some reason he's really picky with crickets as in he basically won't take interest in them unless the crickets looking like its having a seizure. So i always have to squeeze the cricket so that it squirms in pain for him to eat it. Well today the cricket wasn't veey squormy at least not to his squirm levels of acceptence. So I started shaking my hand a bit to make it seem like the cricket was more squirmier. It worked and he ate it. After he ate it though is when he started rotating his left arm like a windmill. After that he started going back to hide in his plant but he notices a cricket thats walking around that was an escapee from yesterday. He eats it and this time halfway through devouring the cricket he starts rotating his left arm like a windmill again.

My 1st thought is that maybe he got hurt and this is some weird way that he deals with it so I opened the cage and tried to pick him up. This is where another weird thing happens, he walks right onto my arm and gets comfy in it. Which he never does, i always gotta poke his tail once or twice for him to walk on. I look at his arm and it looks all good. After a while i put him back and he's back to normal. No issue or cuts, just a random thing he did out of nowhere.

Could this be his way of letting me know that he wants to handle him for a bit? Or maybe just trying to copy me shaking my hand?

Another thing is that when i held him an ant fell off of him. He's had an ant a few times in the past on him and he never payed any mind to em. Could this have been him trying to get the ant off maybe? Maybe he finally got annoyed by em lol

If it happens again I'll try to record it. I have a T.hoe if that matters.

 

[jamest0o0]

I would guess the ant. I can't imagine that chameleons have the instinct to mimic other animal behavior because they are not social. So I do not think he's waving his arm like you, infact, I would highly doubt he even looks at his arm as being the same thing as your arm. That would be impressive intelligence lol.

 

[Vert340]

I would guess the ant. I can't imagine that chameleons have the instinct to mimic other animal behavior because they are not social. So I do not think he's waving his arm like you, infact, I would highly doubt he even looks at his arm as being the same thing as your arm. That would be impressive intelligence lol.

Ah okay makes sense. I have a mini question to tack on to this, so then what is the smartest chameleon we know off? Any idea

 

[jamest0o0]

Ah okay makes sense. I have a mini question to tack on to this, so then what is the smartest chameleon we know off? Any idea

Good question, my guess would be melleri since they seem to form social groups of sorts. Any animal like that will be generally be more intelligent in terms that us humans relate to.

I've heard that Parson's are pretty smart too. I haven't seen anything from mine to indicate that he's a genius, but not dumb either. He is very aware of changes of people and things in environment. Considering they live longer than most chams, might be beneficial for them to have a little more brains.

 

[jamest0o0]

One thing that does amaze me about chameleons, and even my roaches... they have this quick ability that people don't even have where they instantly seem to know the best route from A to B.

 

[Klyde O'Scope]

So about an hour ago my chameleon did something I never seen it do. It started waving, its arm' well tbh it was more like rotating its left arm like a windmill. Not slow either, he was doing it moderatly fast.

Did it look anything like this? "Waving" is a fairly common behavior in some species of reptiles (e.g. bearded dragons, iguanas). Quite a few hits show up for chameleon waving as well—some from here.

In beardies it's usually an act of submission ("I don't want to fight with you").

 

[kinyonga]

If he does it again please post about it.
They don't wave like beardie so do for sure...but they can develop tremors from calcium issues....so what specific supplements do you use and how often and how heavily for each. Specific means brand names and doe they contain any D3 or prEformed vitamin A or phos. (For vitamin A look for words like retinol, retinal, retinyl, palmitate, acetate.)

 

[Vert340]

If he does it again please post about it.
They don't wave like beardie so do for sure...but they can develop tremors from calcium issues....so what specific supplements do you use and how often and how heavily for each. Specific means brand names and doe they contain any D3 or prEformed vitamin A or phos. (For vitamin A look for words like retinol, retinal, retinyl, palmitate, acetate.)

I just took a pic to make it easier. I use the normal without d3 calcium every feeding except when I feed him bsfl. I give him the multivitamin and d3 calcium once a month. Maybe the bsfl with the dusting is too much calcium? Or maybe it really was him wanting the ant off, I love how one option is harmless and the other is a serious health issue. These chameleons like to make us stress out over em ?.

If it happens again I'll def make a more serious post about it though and try to take a video. One thing to note tho is that he didn't seem uncomfortable or in pain while it happened from what I could tell.

 

[KittyB]

So about an hour ago my chameleon did something I never seen it do. It started waving, its arm' well tbh it was more like rotating its left arm like a windmill. Not slow either, he was doing it moderatly fast. I tried searching online for anything about it and nothing popped up. I'll just explain how the whole thing happened so you guys can see if anything pops up.

I turned on his lights and decided to feed him a bit earlier today so I got the cricket keeper out and took out a cricket in front of him. For some reason he's really picky with crickets as in he basically won't take interest in them unless the crickets looking like its having a seizure. So i always have to squeeze the cricket so that it squirms in pain for him to eat it. Well today the cricket wasn't veey squormy at least not to his squirm levels of acceptence. So I started shaking my hand a bit to make it seem like the cricket was more squirmier. It worked and he ate it. After he ate it though is when he started rotating his left arm like a windmill. After that he started going back to hide in his plant but he notices a cricket thats walking around that was an escapee from yesterday. He eats it and this time halfway through devouring the cricket he starts rotating his left arm like a windmill again.

My 1st thought is that maybe he got hurt and this is some weird way that he deals with it so I opened the cage and tried to pick him up. This is where another weird thing happens, he walks right onto my arm and gets comfy in it. Which he never does, i always gotta poke his tail once or twice for him to walk on. I look at his arm and it looks all good. After a while i put him back and he's back to normal. No issue or cuts, just a random thing he did out of nowhere.

Could this be his way of letting me know that he wants to handle him for a bit? Or maybe just trying to copy me shaking my hand?

Another thing is that when i held him an ant fell off of him. He's had an ant a few times in the past on him and he never payed any mind to em. Could this have been him trying to get the ant off maybe? Maybe he finally got annoyed by em lol

If it happens again I'll try to record it. I have a T.hoe if that matters.

Haven't read all the replies but a few things immediately struck me.. the waving arm motion is what they do when moving and trying to secure footing on a branch or sussing out what is in front of them when they are having some vision issues (That is separate from when you remove a healthy Cham from its enclosure and it exhibits the "reach" reflex as I like to call it (which in my opinion is basically the Chameleon exhibiting stress and. trying to reach for a higher ground (stability .. they are arboreal creatures after all)

This combined with your statement about your chameleon not eating crickets unless you manually wave them tells me his eyes are having issues.. I'm not a Chameleon "expert"

However I am comfortable stating I am when it comes to vision issues and how they manifest and how they will effect overall health

What lighting do you have what is your lights on off schedule and how long have you had this chameleon. Chams really really do not like being handled.. there are exceptions to this rule but generally just no.

 

[Vert340]

Haven't read all the replies but a few things immediately struck me.. the waving arm motion is what they do when moving and trying to secure footing on a branch or sussing out what is in front of them, this combined with your statement about your chameleon not eating crickets unless you manually wave them tells me his eyes are having issues.. I'm no expert but kind of am at this point. What lighting do you have what is your lights on off schedule and how long have you had this chameleon. Chams really really do not like being handled.. there are exceptions to this rule but generally just no.

No like he just doesn't have interest in any feeder at all unless they are super active or look like they're scared of him as in trying to run away. He just legit doesn't care for feeders unless he can hunt it or if he sees that they show him fear. It's just how he is, it's why I use flying feeders when I can because he always goes for those no matter what. His eyes are fine, he picks flys out of the air, he's just super picky with his food. The whole cricket thing isn't an issue I just brought it up to root out the mimicry being an option, which james helped me rule out.

For the lighting and any other question just assume that I'm doing what you would do/have for a jacksons because it's more or less the same for T-hoes.

 

[KittyB]

No like he just doesn't have interest in any feeder at all unless they are super active or look like they're scared of him as in trying to run away. He just legit doesn't care for feeders unless he can hunt it or if he sees that they show him fear. It's just how he is, it's why I use flying feeders when I can because he always goes for those no matter what. His eyes are fine, he picks flys out of the air, he's just super picky with his food. The whole cricket thing isn't an issue I just brought it up to root out the mimicry being an option, which james helped me rule out.

For the lighting and any other question just assume that I'm doing what you would do/have for a jacksons because it's more or less the same for T-hoes.

 

[KittyB]

Gotcha, I was initially confused as I am not familiar with your breed type, I AM familiar with Jacksons however, as good friends of mine have one. I still stand by my personal experience however, my Cham also became very picky about his feed when his vision started to fail (unbeknownst to me at the time) I thought he just had a preference for specific insects. Any chance you can post a vid clip of his arm action?

 

[kinyonga]

Can you please post a couple of photos of your chameleon @Vert340?

You said..."Maybe the bsfl with the dusting is too much calcium?"...it's not that easy to overdose calcium with the way you're doing it as long as you're not making the insects look like ghosts all the time and obpverdoing the D3 from what I understand.

 

[Vert340]

Can you please post a couple of photos of your chameleon @Vert340?

You said..."Maybe the bsfl with the dusting is too much calcium?"...it's not that easy to overdose calcium with the way you're doing it as long as you're not making the insects look like ghosts all the time and obpverdoing the D3 from what I understand.

Here are a few ones from rn. And in this link there are some more pics from 2 days ago incase these end up helping you see whatever you're checking for https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/windy-day-sunshine.175546/

Also oh okay I got ya.

 

[kinyonga]

I don't see anything wrong with him...he looks good. That's all I wanted to see the photos for!